The Curse
by Agathy
Summary: Duo Maxwell meets a mysterious blonde who who ends up unknowingly laying a pathetic curse on him....


center::The Curse::/center  
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iAuthor's Note: You don't have to have read Melodrama or TA-DS to understand this, but it would help. Just realize that Marian is evil! That's her excuse for her...behavior...lmao.... Flames allowed! of course/i  
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Characters: (in order of appearance)  
Vengeance :: the sorceress from Melodrama  
Marian :: an Anti from TA-DS (The Anti-Digimon Show)  
Duo Maxwell :: a Gundam pilot from Gundam Wing  
Hotaru Tomoe :: a Sailor Scout from Sailor Moon  
Jed :: an Anti from TA-DS, Marian's twin brother  
Dad :: Marian's & Jed's father  
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Vengeance chanted in her room, silently but powerfully.  
iDuo Maxwell. Just the sound of his name makes me sick.   
Duo Maxwell. Ecch.   
He is so prideful and stupid. One day this person will feel my wrath..../i  
She took out a pair of scissors and a mirror....  
***  
Marian wasn't considered either good or nice by the people who knew her. In fact, most of them called her 'Morbid Marian.' It was quite funny how they all were scared of her. If you just looked at her, you still might have gotten the impression that she was evil. However, most people, from just looking at her, concluded that she was a nice young girl.  
At the age of 14, she was one year younger than the boy who walked just a few feet in front of her. It was a cold winter day, but Marian was warm.   
Duo Maxwell, on the other hand, was freezing although he had on gloves and a jacket and everything. He shivered and then got a strange feeling that he was being watched. He turned around suddenly.  
Noticing the girl with the very yellow blonde hair, he sighed with relief. Duo had been expecting worse people to follow him. Of course, he didn't know Marian, and did not know why she was staring at him.  
Marian was staring at the boy in front of her, with his medium brown hair. It wasn't his face that startled her---his face wasn't anything out of the ordinary. But his hair! It was at least a foot and a half longer than hers, and what was even scarier to her was that it was braided. iA guy with a braid?!/i she thought, nearly screaming. However, Marian managed to contain herself.  
Duo shrugged and walked on. The girl looked a bit demented. Her eyebrows were sharply turned down, like someone's when she was angry or feeling evil. This girl looked like she had been born either angry or evil. Her mouth was opened slightly as if she was frightened and shocked.  
Marian walked faster to catch up with Duo. Now Duo himself was frightened. The scared and surprised expression that had been on Marian's face just a few seconds ago now switched to Duo's. "W-What do you want?!" he asked, in a strangled voice.  
"I'm just wondering," she said, "where you came from."  
Duo's expression turned back to normal. "Oh," he said. "I was born in a colony."  
"Huh?" Marian asked. "What are you talking about?"  
"I was born in space." Duo mumbled this and turned away. "Why do you want to know, anyway? Do I know you?"  
"No, you don't. I was just wondering. The fact that you were born in space makes a lot of sense. Where were you brought up, then?"  
"Uhm...I was brought up by nuns."  
"Nuns!" Marian said in wonderment.  
"Y-Yeah, that's right," Duo replied, shivering in the cold.  
Marian stared at him. "Are you cold?"  
"Yeah...aren't you?"  
"No, I'm warm. So you were brought up by nuns and so...how did you get here?"  
"I um...I-I'm in a war, that's why."  
"A war?!"  
Duo nodded. "Well, now that I've told you all of that...will you please explain to me why you asked me all of that and why you were staring at me earlier? What's your name, anyway?"  
Marian shrugged. "I never asked you for your name. Mine, however, is Marian."  
"Oh." Duo thought for a minute. "Marian what?"  
"Just 'Marian,' nothing else. What's your name then?"  
"Duo Maxwell."  
She took this in and then said, "You have a very interesting name."  
"Thank you. Now will you please explain to me...!"  
"Oh, I'm sorry," Marian said, although she was not sorry at all. "I was just thinking that you must have grown up either not on this planet or in a very open-minded society."  
"Why is that?" Duo asked, in a steely voice.  
"Oh, nothing...it's just that..." Marian burst out into laughter.  
"It's just that what, I would like to know?"  
"Yeah sure you'd like to know but does that mean I have to tell you?!"  
"Uhm...well, you should have kept quiet and not stared at me!"  
Marian sighed. "All right, ifine/i," she said melodramatically. "It's your braid I was actually wondering about."  
Duo stared at her. "My braid?!"  
"Yeah. Have you never experienced social stigma of any sort for being male and having a braid? I'm sorry for being so rude, I'm just curious."  
The prideful Duo was offended greatly. "Yeah, sure," he responded a bit too sarcastically. "Anyway, ino/i, I have never experienced uhm...what was it you said again?"  
"iSocial stigma/i," Marian said, rolling her eyes. "What I mean to say, in terms that someone of your intelligence can understand is, have you ever been made fun of?"  
"You mean teased? For having a braid and being a guy? No."  
"Wow," Marian said. "So you did grow up in an open-minded society."  
"Not really. Them nuns wanted to cut off my hair. I was an orphan."  
"And so why haven't you ever gotten it cut?"  
Duo blushed. "I um...." He stopped and looked up at the darkening sky, looking for an excuse. "I can't afford a haircut for God's sake! Geez you people are so nosy and rude! I'm not nearly as rich as you are, don't you know that?! You're not a war veteran, are you?!?"  
Marian was taken aback by this outburst. "Geez almighty! You don't have to be so..."  
Duo nodded, ashamed. "I'm sorry, Marian. What I meant to say is that I uhm...never had the time to get my hair cut."  
"Can't you even afford a pair of scissors? Or is your appearance so important to you that you would have to spend several hours on your hair if you ever did cut it?! I swear, is it so hard for you to just cut it? I mean, I'm sorry, but that braid is not attractive to me or any girl I know. Duo...how often do you wash your hair, anyway?"  
Duo was suddenly annoyed. "Why is it all any of your business?!"  
A figure was making their way across the street. In the light, Duo could see that it was Hotaru.  
"Hotaru!" he shouted to his female friend, relieved.  
Hotaru glanced at him and smiled. "Oh hi, Duo."  
Marian stared at the two. "You two are ifriends/i?! Omigod...and oh never mind." Her brother, Jed, was making his way from the right.  
"Marian! What are you doing out here so late? Mom is wondering...."  
Duo stared at Jed for a minute, then looked at Marian. "You two are sister and brother?"  
Jed nodded. "Who the heckll are you? You better not be causing any harm to anyone...."  
Duo rolled his eyes. "I'm Duo Maxwell, and I'm not. It's your sister here who was bothering me. And you are...?"  
"Jed, Marian's twin brother. And who are you?" he asked, noticing Hotaru.  
"I'm Hotaru Tomoe, a friend of Duo's."  
Marian burst out laughing. "You're that Sailor Saturn girl, aren't you? Ahahaha! One of the little prisses...well, when you have a male friend that has a braid, then, well, you're screwed anyway."  
Duo and Hotaru glared at her. "Will you shut up about my braid?!" Duo asked, angry.  
"I am inot/i a priss, you wench!" Hotaru shouted.  
Jed sighed and walked off. "It's dinner time, Marian, six o'clock." He disappeared into the night.  
Hotaru glared at Marian and left as well. "Come back asap, Duo."  
Duo nodded and then turned back to Marian. "I swear, what is your problem? Are you that narrow-minded?!"  
"I was born in a narrow-minded society. I was brought up in one. I go to school at Odaiba High---"  
"Well, that explains why, I guess. Odaiba is like one of the most narrow-minded and judgmental areas around," Duo interrupted, before Marian could finish.  
"Wow, you actually know the word 'judgmental'?!"   
"Oh never mind! Well, no, I can't really afford to buy a pair of scissors. Didn't I tell you I was an orphan? And I wash my hair every night...."  
"So youdohave time, then, because you must braid it every morning!"  
"True, very true...."  
"Well, here you go." Marian took out a pair of scissors and handed them to him. They were unusually nice for scissors. With red handles and gold edging, and golden blades, they were just about made for royalty.  
Duo stared at them, gaping. "Whoa...thanks, Marian."  
Marian smiled. "Let me do something first, Duo." And she took the scissors from his hand and said, "Let me show you just how powerful these blades are." She swept them once through his hair, at the very beginning of the braid, and the entire hairpiece fell into her left hand.  
Duo began to scream in agony.   
"What's the matter? Did I hurt you?" she asked, sardonic as ever.  
"No, it's just that...OH MY LORD, MY BRAID!!!" Duo screamed even more loudly. "You destroyed my hair, my beautiful hair!"  
Marian got a Whoa,-I'm-getting-outta-here-because-you're-mental look on her face. "Geez! At least I didn't have Illusion Creator get Dr. K to cut it off! You should thank me for this, for making you more normal!"  
Duo screamed with tears. "I--I don't want to be normal!!! I want to be ime/i! That braid---it symbolized everything great about me! You've just destroyed me and my hair! You destroyed my life! Now that my braid is dead, I'll die too! That hurt!"  
"Okay...um you scare me."  
"Do I!! Well that's just great! You killed my hair...my lovely and beautiful braid!!! It was once alive!"  
"For God's sake, Duo...it was inever/i alive!"  
"Well, hair grows! It's alive!"  
[Flashback]  
"Let me cut your hair, dear," the nun said, with a kind smile on her face that showed no evidence of the worry she felt.  
"No! It's alive!" the younger Duo screamed. It was the exact same scream as the one he emitted now.  
"Dear, hair isn't alive...."  
"Then why does it still grow?!"   
[End of Flashback]  
"Oh God...you are such a loser! You're ten thousand times worse than Tai Kamiya, geez! At least his hair wasn't ilong/i...it was big though. And he didn't freak out about it, either. I mean, when it got cut, according to what I heard."  
"Nooo...you hurt my hair! How could you???"  
"Well, what else were you going to do with the scissors?"  
"Uhm well...I don't know! But not cutting off my lovely braid!"  
"Believe me, Duo, it was not lovely. Your hair still looks odd, but much better now."  
Duo's face was tear-stained. "Give me a mirror then!"  
Marian sighed as she produced one. "Here you have it."  
Duo's expression suddenly changed to a smile. "Hehe...well, I'm even more handsome now. Thanks Marian." He handed her the mirror.  
Marian sighed again and put it back into her purse. "Oh gosh. Well, I'm going to go."  
Duo nodded and smiled, remembering his reflection. The vanity of it all!  
She noticed his expression and said, "Hey...do you want to keep the mirror? And the scissors?"  
"Yeah sure, why not?"  
"All right," and she took the items out and handed them to him. Then she left.  
He laughed to himself all of the way back to the camp, staring in the mirror at his reflection.  
***  
[Later that night: Marian's house]  
"Hey, Marian?"   
"Yeah, Dad?"  
"Mom's been looking for those scissors and that mirror...you know, the cursed ones? I've already had Aliz and Tera look for them, but Jed swears that you've got them."  
"Oh, those. No, Dad, I don't have them. You're talking about the scissors that are red and gold, right? The really pretty ones? And that mirror that makes every normal human being super vain?"  
"Yeah. The scissors that we've been trying to get rid of, and that mirror that we've tried to throw away. But no matter what we do, the curse still lies on this house and the items come back to us. Where are they, then?"  
"Oh um...I think I gave them away someplace. You don't mind, do you?"  
"Oh, good! No, of course not! Let's just hope you didn't give them to someone who was prideful already and cared about their hair...a lot."  
"Dad, I'd never do that. I gave them to a perfectly normal individual." 


End file.
